Article excerpt

SEATTLE (AP) - Conservation and new technology must be stressed in a
national energy policy that also should take special note of the
cost of energy alternatives, three present and former Northeast
congressmen told U.S. Energy Secretary James Watkins on Monday.

U.S. Reps. Sid Morrison and John Miller and former U.S. Sen. Dan
Evans praised Watkins for his efforts to develop a cohesive energy
policy and for holding a series of hearings on the proposals.

Seattle is one of four venues for hearings on Watkins' proposed
national energy strategy. Hearings were held earlier in Tulsa and
Boise, Idaho, and the last will be in Louisville, Ky., on Sept 8.

The three Washington Republicans said the United States suffered
from a lack of an overall energy policy during the Reagan years.

``Mr. Secretary, you inherited a mess,'' Morrison said.

The nation is laboring under ``a strange, often contradictory
set of policies influencing our energy use and supplies,'' Morrison
said.

Energy research and development seem only to respond to
short-term crises rather than long-term needs and too often is
driven by politics, Morrison said.

After the 1970s' oil embargoes a lot of money was spent on
renewing energy sources, Morrison said. But in subsequent years
administration budget requests for such research dropped to about 10
percent of earlier levels. …